


Blue Lioness: Heart of Voltron

by Queen_OT_Clouds



Series: Blue Lioness AU [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), F/M, Lance is Lana, Sarcasm, Sentient Voltron Lions, Voltron Rewrite, fem! lance, vulgarity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2019-10-01 11:25:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17243393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queen_OT_Clouds/pseuds/Queen_OT_Clouds
Summary: This is going to be my fem! Lance rewrite of Voltron!





	1. Poll

Before this story even begins properly, I'm going to take a survey to see what all of you want the ship to be. In the relationships tag of this fic, you can see that I put both Shance and Klance as ships. I'm having a lot of trouble deciding which ship to use.

Here is my logic: For Klance, it would be good because the show already started to build up towards their relationship and it would allow me to make Adashi canon cause I'm keeping Adam alive. For Shance it would be easier for me to write it because I am more comfortable with the ship. 

Please comment which ship you would like! I'll post which ship it will be when chapter 1: Rise of Voltron Part 1 comes out. Thank you all so much!

You can ask me questions on [My Tumblr](https://queen-ot-clouds.tumblr.com/) 


	2. The Rise of Voltron (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOAH 4 MONTHS!!!! This chapter was a bitch to write and I don't want to know what the rest of the show is going to be like. I already know this is going to take years, hopefully you guess will stick around that long to see it through to the end. 
> 
> The majority of Lana's thoughts were my thoughts while I was rewatching the episode. I also changed a bit of dialogue and added a few scenes. I gave Lana my humor so some of the things that she will say or think aren't going to be very Lance and instead very me. I am basically self inserting without making it blatant. I also made the characters more vulgar cause what teenager doesn't curse when their parents aren't around?
> 
> The verdict is in any most people chose Shance to be the ship for this fic! Thank you everyone who voted. 
> 
> DISCLAIMER: While I do not own Voltron, the majority of the lines in this fic are directly from the show. You can easily follow along by listening to the show and reading the fic. 
> 
> PLEASE READ THE END NOTES!!!!!

_“Hija! Come help me with this!”_

_“Coming, mamá!” The young woman smiled, before washing away a green face mask and heading down stairs. Her mother was in the kitchen, midway through cooking breakfast when one of Lana’s nephew’s tried to sneak away with a bun from the cooling tray on the counter._

_“I know, you aren’t trying to steal on of those buns,” Lana’s mother said, not even turning away from what she was mixing in a bowl. Her nephew had sworn up and down that his grandmother had eyes in the back of her head. That’s why she wore two pairs of sunglasses whenever they went to the beach._

_Lana laughed lightly at her family’s antics before walking over to a window and pushed it open. The smell of ocean immediately assaulted her senses and Lana leaned against the sill, slowly relaxing, dropping her head and letting her hair fall over one shoulder. The ocean reminded her of home. The feeling of the sand between her toes and the sun on her skin. The sound of the seagull calls as they begged and, during desperate times, stole food from patrons. The sight of children as they built sandcastles with little colorful buckets and shovels. The chatter of patrons as they baked beneath the unforgiving sun. The cold of the ice cream dripping onto her sun warmed thigh. The lull of the waves that soothed her to sleep on more than one occasion._     

Lana swayed along to the motion of the waves and almost drowned herself in its depths when the sound of Iverson’s voice over the intercom broke her out of her reverie.

 _“All cadets report to their classrooms in 15 minutes._ ”

Lana sighed, and pulled her hair up into a ponytail, following Hunk out of their shared dorm room. Lana honestly had no idea how the Garrison had allowed her to room with her best friend, but she wasn’t complaining. As they walked by the cafeteria, Lana watched her reflection in the glass to see if she had any stray strands before tying her hair off with a blue scrunchie. She blew a kiss at her reflection before her eyes focused, looking through the glass, and her face flushed when she saw that Admiral Sanda had an eyebrow cocked at her, clueing Lana in to the fact that she had been staring at the woman during her hair-doing. Lana’s face heated up more when she realized that she just blew a kiss to her superior. The blue-eyed girl gaped like a fish at the woman, averting her eyes a few times before awkwardly waving and practically ran down the hall towards Hunk who was currently laughing his ass off at her predicament.

“Oh-oh my go-od! That was beautiful, I wish I recorded it! Pidge would have a field day with that!” Hunk wiped away an actual tear and clutched at the stitch in his side.

“Shut up, let’s just get to class.” Lana said, pouting and turning away from her friend, speed walking her way down the hall determined to leave Hunk behind.

“Wait Lana, no! Don’t leave me like this!” Hunk cried as he limped behind her, the stitch doing wonders for his stamina. With the way that Hunk was hobbling after her, Lana was worried that he would be late for class, then remembered why she was walking so fast.

“No, you laughed at me, suffer.” Was shouted back as Lana turned the corner, giggling as he yelled her name, sounding like a wounded animal. He’s a big boy, he’ll survive.

 

~~~

 

After their flight simulation, Lana stomped to her room, cheeks inflamed from embarrassment. God, she hated being compared to Keith. Perfect Keith, with his perfect flying, and his perfect techniche, and his perfect grades, and his perfect everything. The man couldn’t even let someone else into the limelight for once. But considering how pale he was for someone who lived in the desert, he kind of needed it. Keith needed to take in all the Vitamin D he could get, artificial or otherwise.

Lana swiped her Garrison ID and didn’t even wait for the door to finish opening before she slid through. “Snake ass hoe, fucking shit, who the fuck does his bitch ass think he is? I’ll show his ass. Watch me, I’ll finesse them caterpillars right off his face. He won’t even see it coming. I’ll knock out his other eye, can’t critique me if he can’t see me.” Lana muttered under her breath, as she flopped down on her bed.

Hunk managed to slip through the door before it closed back again and hesitantly walked over to his ‘sister’. When Lana was in funks like this, she was at her most dangerous. Most people didn’t survive the attacks Lana would enact on anyone who bothered her. “Uh, La-”

Lana’s arm shot into the air and she placed her index finger on his lips. She uncovered one of her blue eyes from the depths of her pillow and stared up at him. “Hush, sweet child of mine. Once I’ve calmed down we can go out. How about that?”

Hunk nodded wide eyed before backing away from her. Not wanting to be the subject of her simmering wrath if he was to go against her.

 

~~~

 

Around an hour later, Lana had changed out of her Garrison issued uniform and into a blue baseball tee, high waisted jeans, and her blue sneakers. She had put hoops in her ears and had put on her signature green jacket to keep warm. Despite the fact that they were in the middle of a dessert, it was still cold as a dead man’s balls at night.

“Lights out in five! Everyone back to their dorms, now.” Iverson shouted down the hallway. Lana peaked around a the corner to see Iverson turn his back to them.

Behind her Hunk muttered, “We shouldn’t be doing this.”

Lana glanced at him and said, “You heard Commander Iverson. We need to bond as a team.” She smirked to herself. “We’re going to grab Pidge, hit the town, loosen up, meet some nice guys and gals--”

The lights cut out and Hunk caved, “Okay, okay, I’m just saying this here, right now, on the record. This is a bad idea.” Lana rolled her eyes at him before dashing down the hallway, Hunk following behind her. As they made their way past the staff room, Lana dropped to her knees and began to crawl under the window that looked out into the hallway.

“You know, for someone in a space exploration program, you don’t have much of a sense of adventure.”

“All of your little adventures end up with me in the principal’s office.” Hunk whined from behind her.

“So then why are you coming along?” Lana smirked back at him.

Hunk rolled his eyes. “Cause you’re going to get into more trouble if I’m not there to talk down the principal from expelling both of us for your nonsense.”

“That’s why you’re my favorite brother.” Lana said after standing up and brushing her knees. She squished Hunk’s cheeks together fondly, smiling at him as he sent her a withering glare. As they made their way down the hall, the sound of footsteps alerted them them that they were going to get in so much trouble if they didn’t hide, and fast. Lana quickly spotted some recycling bins and hopped into the blue one. Bless the janitor for emptying them out earlier. Lana was going to throw a fit if her jeans got dirty. These things were new and they made her ass look _fantastic_.   

She heard the struggles of Hunk fitting into the yellow one next to her, but assumed that he was safe when she heard the guard say, “L-5 north all clear.”

Once his footsteps faded, she jumped out of the trashcan and landed in a ninja pose that she had seen on TV. She dusted off her jacket and began to walk away, turning back when she heard Hunk crash in his bin. The man quickly got up with an, “I’m fine,” and began to walk down the hall with her.

One of the dorm doors opened and Lana pulled Hunk behind a wall to avoid being spotted. She peaked around the corner in enough time to see Pidge run down the hall with a backpack on her back. Yeah, Lana knew that Pidge was a girl disguised as a boy, but she knew better than to ask. Lana wasn’t going to out Pidge to anyone if she didn’t want them to know. Pidge would tell her when she was ready. But at the moment, Lana’s one thought that she voiced was, “Where is he going?”

Detering from their original route, Lana and Hunk followed Pidge up to the roof of the Garrison, where the girl had already set up her computer and a small satellite with a large clunky device next to it. She was wearing headphones over her ears and Lana suddenly had a mischievous thought. She snuck up behind the girl and lifted one side of the headphones, saying in her ear, “You come up here to rock out?”

Pidge startled almost comically, turning her entire body to stare at her. She quickly rearranged herself into a tense criss-cross position and said, “Oh, Lana, Hunk. No, um, just looking at the stars.”

Pidge’s excuse wasn’t believable in the slightest, but Lana let it slide to instead look at the tech she had. “Where’d you get this stuff? It doesn’t look like Garrison tech.”

“I built it.” Pidge gave Lana the single most smug look in the world. Someone call up Guinness, because they had a smugness champion right here just waiting to be put in the record books.  

Hunk crept up behind her and moved to touch one of the buttons, “You built all this?”

Pidge smacked his hand away before he could press anything. “Stop it! With this thing, I can scan all the way to the edge of the solar system.” Lana rose an eyebrow and placed two fingers on her chin, stroking her invisible beard.

“Really? All the way to Kerberos?” Pidge let out a sad noise and visibly deflated at Lana’s words. “You go ballistic every time the instructors bring it up. What’s going on?”

Hunk reached up and began to fiddle with the small satellite, only to be stopped by Pidge’s glare. “Second warning, Hunk!”

“Look Pidge,” Lana waited till the girl was facing her again. “If we’re going to bond as a team, we can’t have any secrets.”

Pidge turned back to her computer and sighed, “Fine. The world as you know it is about to change. The Kerberos mission wasn’t lost because of some malfunction or crew mistake.” Lana was only half listen as she watched Hunk reach out to touch another button, only to be stopped once more by Pidge turning around quickly and yelling, “Stop touching my equipment!” Hunk groaned and flopped over like an old dog after a long walk. “So, I’ve been scanning the system and picking up alien radio chatter.”

Hunk quickly sat up, worry pulling at his face. “Woah. What? Aliens?”

Lana quirked an eyebrow giving Pidge a concerned look, “Okay..?”

“I’m serious.” Pidge stressed. “They keep repeating one word, ‘Voltron’.” Pidge held up a notepad with a drawing of a man in armor, wielding a sword that was on fire. The word _Voltron_ scrawled across the top. Pidge lowered the notepad to look Lana in the eyes again. “And tonight, it’s going crazier than I have ever heard it.”

“On a scale of 1 to 10, how crazy?” Lana asked.

Iverson’s voice over the PA interrupted what Pidge was going to say next. “Attention, students. This is not a drill. We are on lockdown! Security situation Zulu Niner! Repeat: all students are to remain in barracks until further notice.” By the end of the message, Hunk had stood up and was looking around worriedly.

“What’s going on? Is that a meteor?” Hunk point to a growing bright red light in the sky. Like something big was breaching the atmosphere. “A very, very big meteor?”

Pidge quickly picked up some binoculars that she had laying on her beag and looked at the foreign entity. “It’s a ship!” She announced, and yelped as Lana pulled the binoculars out of her hands so that she could see through them.

“Holy shit! I can’t believe this! That’s not one of ours.”

“No, it’s one of _theirs_ .” Yeah no shit it was. That thing was _alien_. And that thought made Lana shudder in fear mixed with a pinch of excitement. They watched the ship as it quickly made it’s decent down into the dessert.

“So, wait. There really are aliens out there?”

Well, yeah. You can’t possibly believe that humans are the only intelligent life form in the entire _infinite_ universe. Humans have only been around for about 66 million years and the earth about 4 billion years old. The universe has been around for 13 billion years. That’s a lot of time for something to develop. It’s a certainty that there are other lifeforms out there and this UFO is simply proving that fact. (I did research for this!)

As the ship made contact, there was a flare of light and a loud boom. The three of them could see a few Garrison vehicles move out of the base and over to the sight of the crash. Lana turned to Pidge and was shocked by how quickly the girl had managed to pack up her equipment. The bag was on her back and a large, excited smile decorated her face. “We’ve got to see that ship!”

Lana smiled at her and they both started to run towards the elevator. Lana threw, “Hunk come on!” Over her shoulder and smiled when she heard him groan; “Oh, this is the worst team-building exercise ever.” But he followed after them.

 

~~~

 

They were set up on an outcropping, overlooking the crash sight. The Garrison had built a bubble next to the ship and there were guards on duty to make sure that no curious students got in. Pidge had already set up her tech again, and was clicking away at the keys. Lana had yet to figure out how the small girl managed to get everything ready so quickly. She was so fast she could put a masturbaiting, prepubescent boy to shame. Lana was laying on her stomach, holding the binoculars up to her face to get a closer look at what was happening. Hunk was crouched next to her, also looking, though he wasn’t doing much good.

Lana zoomed in on the spaceship, “What in world is that thing?” The Garrison had it strapped down to a tow truck, and were about to start to drive it back to the facility. One of Lana’s elbows rolled and the vision of the binoculars shifted, “And who the heck is she?!” Lana knew she shouldn’t be ogling her superiors, but it’s not like anyone would know.

“Lana!” Was Pidge’s slightly scandalized cry, slapping a hand down on one of Lana's thighs. She couldn't reach much further.

Lana sucked on her teeth and zoomed back out again to view the entire bubble. “Right, alien ship.” Lana quickly took a head count of all of the guards. Twelve! “Damn, we’ll never get past all those guards to get a good look.”

Hunk made a fake disappointed noise behind her, “Ah, man. Yeah, yeah, I guess there’s nothing to but head back to the barracks, right?”

Hunk got up and began to walk away, but stopped when Pidge said, “Wait. They set up a camera in there and I grabbed it’s feed. Look!”

Lana and Hunk leaned over her shoulders to watch her screen. There was a vaguely familiar man strapped to a table with three people in hazmat suits walking around him in a makeshift lab. The man, clearly panicked cried out, _“Hey! What are you doing?”_

 _“Calm down, Shiro.”_ Came Iverson’s voice. Wait… Shiro?! Now Lana recognized him. Though he had changed dramatically, Lana would know that face anywhere. Didn’t he die on the Kerberos mission? How is he here? Wait, nevermind. Alien spaceship. Dumb question. _“We just need to keep you quarantined until we run some tests.”_

 _“You have to listen to me!”_ Shiro’s voice rose in volume. _“They destroy worlds.”_ The man grunted as he tried to pry free of the restraints. _“Aliens are coming.”_

"What the hell is Shiro doing alive and on Earth?" Lana muttered to herself, leaning closer to the screen to get a better look at her idol. He had apparently been under some extreme training if the muscles that could be seen through the skintight black material were to go by. Seeing the white forelock, Lana decided that he had clearly suffered from some head trauma. There was a large scar that bridged across his nose and ended around the mid points of his cheeks. 

Lana heard, Pidge quietly ask, “Where’s the rest of the crew?”

 _“Do you know how long you’ve been gone?”_ Iverson asked.

_“I don’t know. Months? Years? Look, there is no time. Aliens are coming here for a weapon. They’re probably on their way. They will destroy us. We have to find Voltron.”_

“Voltron!” Pidge echoed. Lana and Hunk shared a confused and mildly concerned look over her head. This whole situation was getting a little too freaky to be coincidence. Lana was starting to think that she should have gone back to bed with Hunk or just never left the room at all. 

One of the scientists addressed Iverson, _“Sir, take a look at this. It appears his arm has been replaced with a cyborg prosthetic.”_

Iverson looked at the man, _“Put him under until we know what that thing can do.”_  

Shiro immediately surged up from his horizontal position. Looking over to the man with a needle, a terrified look pulling at his handsome face. _“Don’t put me under! No! There is no time!”_ He immediately began to struggle, kicking his legs out in a futile attempt at achieving freedom.

“They didn’t ask about the rest of the crew.” Pidge muttered, a worried look creasing her young face.

“What are they doing, he just got back from space and probably has information about what’s out there. And they’re not even gonna listen to him?”

Pidge turned to look at her. “We have to get him out.” Determination blazed in the girls eyes. Lana wasn’t going to mess with that so she just silently agreed.

Hunk stood and put his hands up in a surrendering motion. “I hate to be the voice of reason, _always_ , but we’re we watching on TV because there was no way to get past the guards?” At least Hunk wasn’t attempting to back out. Lana wouldn’t know what to do without him.

“Now you see,” Lana said, “that was before we were properly motivated. We’ve just gotta think.” Lana put a fist to her cheek and rested her head on it, taking on a thinking pose. “Could we tunnel in?”

“Maybe we can get some hazmat suits and sneak in like med techs.”

Lana patted the girl’s head. “Sorry, Pidgeon, but you’re a bit too short for that.” The girl started to pout. “Unless you can find some stilts somewhere.” Pidge got a twinkle in her eye at the thought, but it was immediately doused like water to a flame, when she remembered that they were in the middle of a fucking dessert. There is just, sand, sand, oh look more sand, a few rocks here and there, and amazingly, _more sand_. “Unless you want to stand on a sand pile, I suggest you think of something different.

“Or,” Hunk said. “We dress up as cooks, head back to the dorms, sneak into the commissary-- little late night snack.” Hunk pulled the weirdest face when he said that and Lana gave him the ‘dafuq’ hand.

She shook her head and glanced back at the bubble, “No. What we need is a distraction.” And as if on cue, a multitude of explosions went off behind the bubble, making the three of them scream.

Hunk said in a panicked voice that was a few octaves higher than his normal speaking voice, “Is that the aliens? Is that the aliens? Are they here? They got here so quickly!” Hunk fell to his knee and put his arms over his head trying to shield himself from nothing.  

“No,” Pidge said, fixing her glasses. “Those explosions were a distraction, for him.” She pointed at the a speed bike, racing across the sand to the bubble that was left behind by the Garrison guards. “The Garrison’s headed toward the blast, and he’s sneaking in from the other side.”

Lana quickly pulled the binoculars up to her face so that she could see who stole her idea. She watched as a man in a cropped jacket-- who the hell wears _cropped_ jackets?-- jumped from the speed bike before it landed. Dashing towards the bubble. He had a bandana around the bottom half of his face, but Lana still knew who it was. “No way! Oh, he is not going to beat us in there!” Lana let out a frustrated sigh. “That guy is always trying to one-up me.” She quickly began to dash down the outcropping, hoping to get there before Keith even though she knew it was a lost cause.

Hunk asked from behind her. “Who is it?”

“Keith!”

Pidge let out a small “who?” Before Hunk rushed passed her in pursuit of Lana.

“Are you sure?”

“Oh I’d recognize that mullet anywhere.” Hunk let out a laugh.

Lana briefly heard Pidge call out, “Who’s Keith?” before she was sliding down a slope.

By the time they got there, the scientists and Iverson were already knocked out and strewn across the room. Damn, how hard does this kid hit? Keith already had one of Shiro’s arms over his shoulder and was carrying him out when Lana said. “Nope. No you-- no, no, no. No, you don’t. I’m saving Shiro.” She shoved the table out of the way and pulled Shiro’s other arm over her shoulders, evenly distributing the weight.

“Who are you?” Keith asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Who am I? Dude what? The name is Lana.” Keith just stared at her in mild confusion. “We were in the same class at the Garrison.”

Keith stared at her for a bit, before recognition flashed in his eyes. “Oh, wait. I remember you. You’re a cargo pilot.” Lana bristled at her former rank.

“Yeah, well not anymore. I’m fighter class now, thanks to your ass dropping out.” Lana snapped. And she swore she heard him mutter, “such vulgarity” under his breath. She fought herself so that she wouldn’t snort at the comment. The kid could be funny when he wanted to be.

They began to drag Shiro over to Keith’s speed bike, hauling him up as Hunk and Pidge watched out for the rest of the Garrison. Hunk, ever the polite one asked, “Uh, do you mind if we catch a ride with you?”

Hunk climbed onto the tail of the bike, causing it to fall back. Pidge let out a startled yelp. “Is this thing going to be big enough for all of us?”

Keith let out a strained “No.” before he pressed the acceleration button. Lana pushed Shiro into Pidge’s arms so that she could find some place to sit.

“Why am I holding this guy?”

“Stop complaining.” Lana reprimanded, as she slid in behind Keith.

“Hey, we did all fit.” Hunk said, an anxious grin on his face.

Lana wrapped one arm around Keith’s waist so that she could have some leverage to pull herself back up when she leaned over to see how far behind the Garrison was. Her eyes widened when she saw how close they were. “Can’t this thing move any faster?” She asked as she wrapped the other arm around Keith, to stabilize herself.

“We could toss out some non-essential weight.” Lana immediately knew what he meant and she pinched his side. “Ow! That hurt. Also, big man, lean left!”

“Don’t be rude, Keith.” He just grumbled.

One of the cars tripped over something and almost smashed into another one.  “Aw, man! Mr. Harris just wiped out Professor Montgomery! No, wait he’s fine.”

Keith yell over his shoulder, “Big man, lean right!” The bike rolled off the side of a cliff and into a half tunnel on another cliff. His stunt cause almost all of them to scream and Pidge to let go of Shiro in the process. “Pidge, I told you to hold him!”

Keith drifted along the wall of the cliff and Lana watched as one of the Garrison cars toppled over. Jesus, someone was going to die if Keith didn’t calm the fuck down. Hunk’s stuttering made Lana focus back on the situation that was, quite literally, ahead.

“Guys? Is that a cliff up ahead?”

“Oh, no, no, no.” Lana’s voice was almost shrill with how panicked she was.

Keith said, “Yup.” with a smug tone. And if Lana wasn’t busy screaming herself hoarse, she would have hit him.

“What are you doing? You’re going to kill us!” Lana screamed, her grip on Keith’s shirt turning deathly as she began to float away. Damn her light self.

“Just shut up and trust me!”

Somehow, they managed to survive. Lana swore she was going into cardiac arrest with how fast her heart was beating and she buried her face in the back of Keith's jacket so that the tears of fear would stop flowing.

“You’re such a jackass.” She choked out, trying not to sound more pathetic than she was feeling on the inside. She felt Keith chuckle against her and willed this stupid trip to be over.

 

~~~

   

The next day, had Lana squirming her way out from between Hunk and the couch. She and Hunk had gotten the couch while Keith had set Shiro up on the small cot in the corner of the shack. Keith had slept on the floor and Lana was still trying to comprehend how hardcore this guy actually was. Lana was pretty sure Pidge hadn’t slept at all, being up all night on a computer does that to a person.

Lana getting out of the crevice of Hunk’s armpit was a struggle at best and a nightmare at worst. The man just wouldn’t let her go. Whenever she tried to move away, Hunk would tighten his arms around her and pull her closer like some kind of cuddly anaconda. Eventually, Lana managed to get out of the confines of Hunk’s arms and glared down at his snoring form.

Lana looked down on the floor and saw Pidge had finally fallen asleep, her glasses were askew on her face and her head was held at an odd, uncomfortable angle. Lana took Pidge’s glasses off and slipped them into the back pocket of her jeans, before picking the girl up from the floor and laying her on top of Hunk to get more sleep in a more comfortable position. She glanced over to the otherside of the shack to see Shiro and Keith still sleeping. Keith apparently was a wild sleeper, as he had managed to turned his body upside down from the original position. His legs were kicked up on the wall and his arms were spread out like a starfish. Lana frowned down at him, nudging his head with her socked toe. Keith made a growling noise in his sleep and swatted at her foot, curling up into a ball to protect himself from more attacks. Lana shook her head in bewilderment and amusement before looking at their guest.

Takashi Shirogane.

Lana never thought that she would be in his presence in her life. Let alone, not even five feet away. Her hero and inspiration to become a fighter pilot like him. Lana remembered vividly the first time she ever saw him.

_Lana was sat in front of the TV in her living room. Marco and Luis were making a ruckus in the other room with Marco’s new toys that he had gotten for his birthday. Abuelita was sat in the overstuffed armchair in the corner of the room, flipping through a glossy magazine and scoffing at society's expectations for women. She let out a string of curses when she flipped to a page that showcased Jennifer Lopez in a swimsuit. No woman should be able to look like she was in her twenties in her fifties._

_Lana had tuned out her grandmother long ago and was fixated on the television screen. The news was having a special to showcase the Galaxy Garrison’s ‘Golden Boy’, Takashi Shirogane. Or as he had told the interviewer, Shiro. The man was a prodigy, breaking records left and right and it appeared that he wasn’t stopping anytime soon._

_As the interview came to a close, the woman asked, “What would you like to tell the children who probably want to be just like you?”_

_Shiro looked into the camera and flashed a dazzling smile. “I want each and everyone of you to know that you can do anything not matter what anyone says. I know it sounds cliche, but it’s so true. Do you know how many times people have tried to beat me down because of who I am? Tons! I refused to believe what they were saying to me. I decided to push them back and leave behind the people who want to deter me from my goals. And because of me proving them wrong, I’m here today to tell you to never let the negativity get to you and to reach for your goals no matter if they are as far away as the stars. I managed to reach mine didn’t I?” Shiro winked at the camera before turning back to the interviewer who twittered irritating at the young man._

_Cougar._

_“What a handsome young man.” Abelulita said from her corner, abandoning her magazine to watch Shiro’s speech. “Get yourself a man like that and I’ll tell you how I got your Abuelito to marry me.” She let out a laugh, but Lana was no longer listening to her._

_Takashi Shirogane had lit a spark in her and she would be damned if she didn’t let it burst into a flame._

From that day on, Lana had thrown herself into studying for the Garrison. She would stay up late into the night, memorizing rules and guidelines and algorithms so that she could ace the test. She had hung up a poster of Shiro in her room and used it as inspiration whenever she felt like she wasn’t doing this for anything good. The best day of her life was when she got her acceptance letter from the Garrison and thanked Shiro for being the one thing that got her there.

Lana smiled slightly at the memory and looked back at her life’s inspiration. She frowned when she saw that he was sweating heavily and violently thrashing in the sheets. She walked over and sat on what little space was left on the cot, brushing his hair back and humming a lullaby. Whenever her niece and nephew were having nightmares, she would go through the same routine to calm them down.

As her hands and lullaby continued, Shiro slowly started to relax and the pinched expression left his face. His eyebrows smoothed out and left him looking as young as he actually was. Lana’s cheeks warmed as her more adult brain thought of how handsome he was. Abuelita was right...

Lana withdrew her hand and made to stand up, but stopped when she heard Shiro whine and roll over to face her. He opened his eyes and Lana panicked, thinking that she had woken him up.

“Ma?” He slurred, clearly still half asleep.

“Hush, go back to sleep.” Lana said soothingly, pushing back the white floof at the front of his hairline. She watched as he was slowly pulled into oblivion and his face smoothed out once more. Lana backed away from the bed and surveyed his attire. A full bodysuit with a purple, fraying top. What the fuck were his fashion choices if he was wearing this?

Lana decided to help the poor man and rummaged through the small dresser Keith had in the shack. He wouldn’t mind, would he? She found a black vest and pants, that fit a man far larger than the lanky boy on the floor. She looked around and found a pair of black boots that she prayed could fit Shiro’s feet. She laid the clothing on the dresser, praying that he would take them and change out of the hideous thing he was wearing.

She glanced out of the only window in the shack, to see the sun barely peeking above the horizon. Marco like to use the analogy that Lana must be Superwoman because she rose with the sun just like the hero did. Mama liked to say that she was a pain the behind as a baby, always asking for food at the crack of dawn.

Lana grabbed her jacket and put it on, pulling up the hood, before walking out of the shack. Just because it’s hot as hell during the day in the dessert, doesn’t mean that it's the same during the night. You could freeze water with how cold it was. She looked around for a comfortable place to watch the sunrise and decided that the roof would work just fine. She used Keith’s speed bike for leverage up to the top of the utility building on the side, before hoping up on the boxes that rested there and onto the roof. She sat so that her ass only marginally hurt from the point of the roof and watched as the sky lightened from the warmth of the sun.

About forty-five minutes later, a figure walked out of the shack and up onto the mound of sand in front. She recognized from the build, hair style and clothing that it was Shiro. He had changed out of the clothing that he had come in and into the things Lana had left.

She ogled his ass in those pants for a bit before she shook her head and decided to go inside. Shiro looked to be deep in thought as he clutched his metal arm and Lana didn’t want to disturb that peace.

As she descended from the roof, she made sure to not only make no noise, but to go down in a way that Shiro wouldn’t see her if he turned around. She sneaked onto the porch and through the door, shutting it behind her quietly.

 

~~~

 

Keith had gone to get Shiro while Lana was waking up Hunk and Pidge. He said that he needed to show them something and considering who Keith was, Lana was concerned.

When Keith and Shiro came back, Keith pulled down a sheet that Lana hadn’t noticed before. Behind it was a cork board covered with photos and notes and strings kept together with tacks. Lana glanced at Keith and to her horror realized that he was a conspiracy theorist. Shane Dawson, who?  

“What have you been working on?” Shiro asked.

“I can’t explain it really,” Keith repiled. “After getting booted from the Garrison, I was kind of lost and found myself drawn out to this place. It’s like something… some energy, was telling me to search.” Okay, so certifiably crazy? Check.

“For what?” Shiro questioned finally looking away from the board.

“Well, I really didn’t know at the time… until I stumbled across this area.” Keith pointed at a center point on the map labeled _ENERGY SOURCE_ that had multiple colored lines going towards it. “It’s an outcropping of giant boulders with caves covered in these ancient markings. Keith pointed towards some photos of lion carvings from the cave. “Each tells a slightly different story about a blue lion, but they all share clue leading to some event, some arrival happening last night. Then, you showed up.”

Huh, so Keith wasn’t all brute and brawn, he actually had some brains on him. Color Lana impressed. 

Shiro pulled a face for a second before turning back to look at the other members of their rag tag group. “I should thank you all for getting me out. Lana, right?” Shiro stepped forwards to shake her hand. The shock that she felt at the fact that he not only recognized her, but remembered her name was an innumerable level.

She reached forwards to accept the handshake she paused before they touched. She was about to shake the hand of her hero, her idol, the man she had always aspired to meet. And now that he was in front of her, remembering her name and her face she was hesitating because she didn’t know how to act around him. After about a second of pause, she finally shook his hand, internally marveling at the fact that his metal arm was _warm_ instead of the cold steel she had expected.

Shiro turned at to Pidge and Hunk with his hand still outstretched. “The nervous guy’s Hunk. I’m Pidge. So, did anyone else from your crew make it out?” What is with this girl and her obsession with the Kerberos mission. Could she have a friend or family member who went on the mission. She did look an awful lot like Matt Holt before he got lasik.

Shiro glanced over at Lana, “I’m not sure. I remember the mission, and being captured. After that, it’s just bits and pieces.” He furrowed his brows as he tried to remember.

“Yeah, sorry it interrupt,” Hunk! “But back to the aliens. Where are they now? Are they coming? Are they coming for all of us? Where are they at this very moment?”

Shiro sighed, “I can’t really put it together. I remember the word “Voltron.” It’s some kind of weapon they’re looking for, but I don’t know why. Whatever it is, I think we need to find it before they do.”

Hunk hummed quietly before bending down to open and search through Pidge’s bag. “Well, last night, I was rummaging through Pidge’s stuff, and I found this picture. Look it’s his girlfriend.” Hunk held up a photo of Pidge and another girl who looked surprisingly like her. This was not pertinent to what they were doing _at all_ , but okay.

“Hey gimme that!” Pidge snatched the photo out of Hunk’s hand. “What were you doing in my stuff?”

“I was looking for a candy bar. But, then I started to read his diary.” Hunk you nosey fiend.

“What!” Pidge cried.

“I noticed this repeating series of numbers the aliens are searching for - looks a lot like a Fraunhofer line.”

“Frown who?” Keith cocked his head to the side.

“It’s a number describing the emission spectrum of an element, only this element doesn’t exist on Earth. I thought it might be this Voltron. And I think I can build a machine to look for it, like a Voltron Geiger counter.”

“Hunk, you big, gassy genius!” Lana cried, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

“It’s pretty fascinating, really. The wavelength looks like this.” Hunk pulled out a sheet of folded up paper and showed it to the rest of them, only for Keith to snatch it out of his hand. What is with people and snatching today.

“Gimme that!” Rude.

Keith held the wavelength under a picture of the mesas, moving the over the paper. Lana’s eyes widened as she saw the wavelength matched perfectly with the peaks of the mecas.

 

~~~

 

They had walked for an hour before Keith stopped them, and held up the Fraunhofer line again. When he removed it, Lana realized they were in the right place. She crossed her arms and cocked her hip to one side, looking around at their surroundings in creeped out awe. “Okay, I admit it, this is super freaky.”

Pidge was holding up a satellite dish that was connected to a device Hunk was hunched over. “I’m getting a reading.” He said as he began to walk towards where the signal was getting stronger. The beeping of the reader had led them to a cave, were it was going off like crazy.

They made their way into the cool shelter and marveled at the carvings that were on the walls.

“What are these?” Shiro asked, looking around.

“These are the lion carvings I was telling you about. They’re everywhere around here.” Lana walked up to one of the walls and examined it. She frowned when she couldn’t see the full picture because of built up sand, and brushed it aside. As soon as she touched the carving, it began to glow blue and made a sound like a robot powering up.

She looked around the cave and saw that all of the carvings were glowing. What the hell?

“They’ve never done that before.” Yeah like that’s reassuring Keith. Suddenly, the land below them crackled like crumbling rock. Between the cracks came a highly concerning blue glow, but Lana wasn’t given much time to think about it before the were falling.

They landed in a shallow pool of water Lana, unfortunately, landed on her chest. “Ow, my tiny tits.”

She swore she heard a snort coming from Shiro’s direction, but was immediately distracted by the fucking _blue robot lion_ inside of a goddamn _force field_.

What. The. Fuck.

Lana needed to go back to sleep, cause this shit is too wild for 8 in the morning.

Pidge stood up next to her, and said, “Is this it? Is this the Voltron?” Lana felt something deeply rooted in her that it wasn’t.

“It must be.” Shiro whispered.

“This is what’s been causing all of that crazy energy out here.” Keith began to walk towards it, followed by the rest of the group. “Looks like there’s a force field around it.”

Lana frowned as she felt like the Lion was watching her. She began to walk in a zig zag to see if the feeling continued. “Does anyone else get the feeling this is staring at them?”

Shiro hummed before saying, “No.”

“Yeah, the eyes are totally following me.”

Keith had finally reached the Lion, looking up at it before placing his hands on the shield. The motion causing ripples to go out from the contact points. “I wonder how we get through this.” He muttered.

Lana, in all her infinite wisdom said, “Maybe you just have to knock.” Before proceeding to do just that. The force field made a strange noise, and blue mist followed Lana’s knuckle as she pulled back. The shield went down and the carvings on the floor below the lion began to glow.

Lana heard Pidge and Hunk screaming behind her, but she was caught up in the vision of 5 lions coming together to form a robot. When the vision ended, Lana glanced around, “uh, did everyone just see that?”

Hunk began to freak. “Voltron is a robot! Voltron is a huge, huge awesome robot!”

“And this thing is only one part of it! I wonder where the rest of them are.”

“This is what they’re look for.”

“Incredible.”

The Lion then moved on its own, and leaned down to the group of then, opening its mouth which produced a ramp for one of them to walk up. Lana felt a sense if rightness with the Lion and felt something invisible entity prodding her shoulder to walk inside. So she did.

After walking up a seperate ramp, she found herself in what appeared to be the cockpit of the robot. She sat down in the pilot's chair and crossed her legs, a sense of familiarity washed over her before the seat moved forwards on its own. She looked around as display screens began to pop up, showing information in a, quite literally, alien language. She heard the rest of her group coming in as the screen wall of her flickered before showing off the cave that they fell into. She laughed and said, “alright, very nice!”

“Okay guys, I feel the need to point out, just so that we’re all aware. We are in some kind of futurist alien cat head right now.” Lana swore pointed ears and whiskers appeared on Hunk’s face when he said cat. Suddenly the rest of the world seemed to disappear and Lana heard a voice in her head.

 _Hello, my cub._ A fond, motherly voice said.

**Hello?**

_We are about to embark on a great adventure together._ Adventure?

**Pardon me. But, who are you?**

_Who do you think little one?_

Lana was suddenly back in the present and she looked around in unconcealed fear.

“Whoa, did you guys just hear that?” She asked.

“Hear what?” Keith snapped back.

“I think, it’s talking to me.” She leaned forwards and looked down at the alien symbols on the dashboard. She poked a few button, which caused the lion to get up and roar. Handlebars appeared on the sides of the chair and suddenly she understood what to do.

“Okay. I got it. Now let's try this!” She trust both handles forward at the same time, and the lion went blasting through the rocks of the cave. They hovered in the air, before Lan did a flip with the Lion, causing Hunk to make a nauseated noise. She pressed a button on the side of one of the handles which cause boosters in the feet to go off and keep the Lion hovering in the air.

Lana pulled the handle bars back and they look off into the sky. Hunk and Pidge had latched on to some part of her and were holding on for dear life.

“You are the worst pilot ever!” Keith yelled in her ear. Just to punish him for that statement, she pull the Lion into a backflip and watched with morbid satisfaction that he turned slightly green.

The Lion went out of control for a few minutes, before Lana managed to hold the bars steady. The Lion ran across the desserts flat land, though Lana had released control long ago. “Isn’t this awesome!” Excitement clear in her voice.  

 _“I’m glad you’re having fun, cub.”_ The motherly voice was back, this time, laced with fondness. Lana was starting to think that the mysterious voice was the lion. But, was it possible for a robot to be sentient? Aliens are already pretty wild, who knows how wild they could get?

Hunk leaned over her one hand over his mouth and the other clutching onto the chair for stability. “Make it stop. Make it stop.”

“I’m not making it do anything. It’s like it’s on autopilot.”

The group began screaming, Keith surprisingly the loudest, as the lion suddenly took of, the boosters in the thighs shooting them off into space. “Where are you going?” Keith yelled in her ear.

_Hold on tight. There is a ship approaching your planet._

“Cálmese, I just said it’s on autopilot. It says there is an alien ship approaching Earth. I think we’re supposed to stop it.” Lana said, her eyes glued to the clouds. This was it, she was about to reach her dream. Not the most conventional of ways of doing it, but, nevertheless, she was about to touch the stars and nothing was stopping her. No Iverson, no bullies, no self-loathing, no depression, not even _gravity_ was going to pull her back down. It was just her, the clouds, the sky, the Lion, and soon enough, the stars.

“What did it say exactly?” Pidge asked, her grip bone white.

“What I just told you.”

Keith huffed from behind her. “Now why does that sound like a lie?”

“That’s cause you’re not a true Belieber.” Lana smiled, as the Lion began to break the atmosphere, her excitement mounting on itself. She giggled as she heard Keith mutter, “isn’t that what they call Justin Bieber fans?” to Shiro.

“If this thing is the weapon they’re coming for, why don’t we just, I don’t know, give it to them? Maybe they’ll leave us alone.” Hunk stuttered out from beside her, one hand making gestures in the air. Hunk looked up at the ceiling. “Sorry Lion, nothing personal.”

“You don’t understand.” Shiro finally spoke up after being silent for nearly the _entire_ trip. “These monsters spread like a throughout the universe, destroying everything in their path. There’s no bargaining with them. They won’t stop until everything is dead.” Wow. Morbid much.

Everyone turned to glare at Hunk who had the flabbergasted look on his face, that was almost comical. “Oh.” Yeah, _oh_. “Never mind, then.”

By the time their conversation had finished, they had flown out of Earth’s atmosphere and were finally among the stars. Lana’s eyes widened and her mouth parted in awe. Finally. Finally, finally, _finally_.

As the Lion flew out of the Earth’s gravitational pull, a ship zoomed in front of them. It looked like something straight out of a space movie, with the dark tones and odd shape that didn’t look aerodynamic, but there was no air in space anyway so what does it matter.

“Holy crow! Is that really an alien ship?”

“Hunk, 98% of the time you say genius things. The other 2% is the stupidest fucking shit I have ever heard.” Lana muttered, her eyes still locked on the ship.

“Well _excuse me_ , if I’m in a state of shock.” Hunk snapped back.

Lana opened her mouth to retort, but was stopped by Shiro’s all commanding, “Guys.” Lana scrunched up her face at her idol before moving the lion around so that they could see the ship better. “They found me.” Shiro whispered, his eyes filled to the brim with fear.

Suddenly, the ship started to fire off lasers, some of them barely skimming the edge of the Lion.

“We’ve gotta get out of here!” Pidge yelled.

“Hang on!” Lana cried, pulling back and somehow managing to dodge the deadly beams of light. “Alight. Okay, I think I know what to do.”

“Be careful man, this isn’t a simulator.” Pidge yelled in her ear, blowing her eardrums out.

Lana snorted, trying to make light of their situation, “well that’s good. I always wreck the simulators.” She pushed on of the handle bars, causing a blue light to emanate from the mouth of the lion. When the mouth closed, the group could see that the line the lion had drawn with the laser created explosions along the side of the alien ship.

“Let’s try this.” Lana steered the lion down towards the ship, digging in the claws, leaving explosions in its wake.  

“Nice job Lana!” Shiro said from the back. Lana felt her heart rate speed up and a flush begin to crawl along the nape of her neck. Praise from _Shiro_!

“I think it’s time to get these guys away from our planet.” Lana muttered to herself, steering the Lion away from the big blue planet, unknowingly leading herself away from the only home that she’s known.

A rearview camera popped up on the dashboard showing the purple ship that was quickly gaining on them. The stars blurring behind it, creating an effect like traveling through lightspeed from those old Star Wars movies. Lana braced herself for the incoming lasers, but after a minute of no fire rose a suspicious eyebrow.

“It’s weird. They’re not trying to shoot us. They’re just chasing.” It was like a dangerous game of tag.

Hunk huffed, “Okay, seriously, now we think having aliens follow us is good?”

“It’s better than what they were doing to us before.” Lana threw back at him, keeping her eyes trained on the stars so that she wouldn’t run into Jupiter or something.

“I mean yeah, but I’m not on board with this new direction guys.”

Keith cut off Lana before she could retort. “Where are we?” His face most definitely pulled into his signature frown. 

Shiro who had been looking out the window for the majority of the trip said, “edge of the solar system. There’s Kerberos.” He pointed to the tiny moon on their right.

“It takes months for our ships to get out this far. We got out here in five second.” Pidge cried, excitement layering her voice. Suddenly, a portal looking thing appeared in front of them, runes surrounded the edge of it and the center looked like space swirled in a pot.

“What is that!” Hunk screamed, his pitch reaching almost soprano levels.

_You must go through, my cub. There is help on the other side._

Oh, okay. “So this may sound crazy, but the Lion wants us to go through there.”

“Where does it go?” Pidge asked, her voice small and nervous. Lana looked over at the petite girl and pulled her into a half hug, resting her head on top of the other’s.

“I don’t know,” Lana whispered into the girl’s hair, eyes trained on the portal that seemed to be drawing the mechanical lion in. “Shiro.” She looked back at the man who glanced down at her when she called his name. His eyes held a storm of emotions, the most prevalent were fear and confusion. “You’re the senior officer here. What should we do?”

“Whatever is happening, the lion knows more than we do.” He said, crossing his arms across his chest in contemplation. “I say we trust it, but we’re a team now. We should decided together.” They all looked at each other and a silent agreement passed between them.

Lana sighed, “alright. Guess we’re all ditching class tomorrow.” She led the lion into the portal and suddenly felt like the weight of the world was pushing her back. The force of the transportation was so strong that she almost flew back and out of the seat. After a few seconds, they were spat back out to see a planet that looked much like their own.

“Woah, that was--” Lana was cut off by Hunk vomiting in the cockpit, a rancid smell wafting up from the edjected fluids. Lana gagged and almost threw up on Pidge herself.

“So sorry,” Hunk half whispered before continuing to throw up.

“I’m just surprised it took this long.” Pidge said, adjusting her glasses on her face.

Shiro leaned over the back of the chair to peer out of the window, his eyes fixed on the stars. The body heat that radiated off of his chest had began to warm the top of Lana’s head. Just the feeling of her idol begin so close was sending her heart into a frenzy. “I don’t recognize any of these constellations. We must be a long, long way from Earth.”

Lana felt the controls of the Lion move on their own and let the machine do its thing. “The lion seems to want to go to this planet. I think… I think it’s going home.”

As they descended into the atmosphere, the members of their little rag tag group began to huddle around Lana’s chair to ground themselves. “Guys, personal space. Hunk, you’re breath is killing me.”

“Um.” Lana choked on the air she was breathing at as Hunk released hot, toxic gas into her face. “Is it just me or is anyone having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious wormhole? Why are we listening to a robotic lion anyway?”

Lana turned and glared at her best friend, “it got us away from that alien warship, didn’t it?”

Keith, for the first time on this trip spoke, and said, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re on an alien warship.”

Lana’s voice went low, garbled and mocking, “oh, are you scared?”

“With you at the helm? Terrified.” Rude. 

“Alright, knock it off. No one’s happy to be in this situation, but we’re here now.” Shiro’s all commanding voice cut off all conversation in the cockpit. “If we want to get through this, we’ve got to do it together.”

“So what do we do?” Pidge asked, voicing everyone’s thoughts.

“First we find out where we’re headed.” Shiro looked down at the blue eyed girl. “Lana?”

“I don’t know. I’m sorry the lion’s not talking to me anymore.” Lana looked around and shank under the disappointed looks from her teammates. “But, hey! There’s a castle up ahead.”

Sounds of awe came from her passengers, everyone taking in the futuristic looking castle. The structure was a pure white, nearly blinding them all, with soft blue accents on the turrets and that could be considered windows.

 _Welcome home._ The lion whispered in her head, before fading into the background though not completely leaving. The lion landed and shook the ground underneath it with its weight.

“Keep your guard up.” Shiro commanded from the back. His eyes narrowed as he took in the castle. Eyes darting all around most likely planning all escape routes in case this whole trip went sideways.

“Is there something wrong?” Pidge asked.

“My crew was captured by aliens once, I’m not going to let it happen again.”

The lion leaned down and they exited from the open mouth, Pidge at the front of the group, Lana taking up the rear. As soon as they all were out, the lion moved on its own and stood.

“No, no I knew it was going to eat us, no!” Hunk cried, closing his eyes in fear and pulling his arms up to his chest. The machine roared at the door of the castle, though Lana still had no clue how it sounded like an actual lion and not a garbled mechanical mess.

The door before them opened with a rumble, clearly not having been used in a while.

“Oh, the door is open. I guess I was wrong about you.” Hunk said back to the lion, who had sat down. The rest of the group shared exasperated looks and began to move towards the gaping entrance of the castle.

They entered a dark and dusty entrance hall, looking around in apprehension and wonder.

“Hello.” The word was sing-song and bounced off the high ceiling and metal walls. Hunk was trying to get them killed. What if there were some deadly assassins who had programed the lion and were actually controlling and it and brought them here to murder them where no one would find them, making sure that they got away with the murder with no witnesses to be seen or heard?! Okay, maybe Lana was overreacting, but it was still a possibility!

“From the size of the lion, I expected these steps to be bigger.” Pidge muttered to herself.

A light from above them flickered on and shone down on them, a smooth female voice came from a speaker in the room. “ _Hold for identity scan_.” Each of the group mates had a circle of light crawl up there body from the floor to their heads.

“Why are we here? What do you want with us?” Shiro called out to the disembodied voice.

There was no response, but lights began to come on, only leading down the main hallway from the entrance hall. “I guess we’re going that way.”

 

~~~

 

As the lights continued to lead them, Hunk’s cried greetings did to. The word ricocheted from wall to wall, creating a haunting echo in the empty castle. They found themselves in a room that had stepping stones in the floor in the formation of a circle. The floor depressed in the middle of the circle and in the center stood a podium.

“Where are we?” Lana asked, twirling in a circle to admire the architecture of the room.

While not expecting an answer Lana got one from Pidge who was standing in front of the podium. “It’s some kind of control room.”

Lana didn’t know what happened, but suspected Pidge had some dealings with, when two _not_ stepping stones rose up from the ground in the form of long tubes, humanoid silhouettes inside.

“Are these guys.. Dead?” Hunk asked.  

The first opened up in a rain of sparkles and revealed a breathtaking girl. She opened her eyes and held out her arm, crying “father!” before she began to fall. She had white hair that fell down to the back of her knees and wore an elegant dress the fluttered alluringly around her descending form. Lana didn’t get to see much before she was rushing forwards to stop the girl from hitting her head on the stone cold floor.

When Lana finally got a good look at her face, blood pooled in her cheeks and made them noticeably red. “Hello,” she purred, pulling a face that usually attracted the odd person from across the room when she went out to parties.

“Who are you? Where am I?” The alluring girl asked her voice hoarse as if she hadn’t used it in a while.

“I’m Lana, and you’re right here in my arms.” Hunk made a fake gagging noise from behind her, but Lana ignored him in favour of the girl in front of her.

She frowned looking at her… her ears? “Your ears…”

“Yeah?” Lana asked, raising a thin eyebrow.

“They’re hideous, what’s wrong with them?” The girl pulled away from Lana, a disgusted look marring her beautiful face. Rude. Why were people so rude today.

“Nothing’s wrong with them! They heard exactly what you said about them!” Lana cried, affronted. The girl suddenly grabbed her ear and twisted her around by it, causing immense pain to shoot through Lana’s head. This was bringing back memories of childhood punishments. Ow. The thought of past pain just made the pain in Lana’s head worse, causing her to cry out. Lana’s pain tolerance was usually pretty high, but this was just ridiculous. The girl was digging her nails into the cartilage of her ear! Bitch that hurt!

“Who are you? Where is King Alfor? What are you doing in my castle?” The girl fired off questions rapid fire, not giving any of them time to answer.

“A giant blue lion brought us here! That’s all we know!” Lana cried hoping the information would placate the girl enough to let her ear go.

Thankfully she did. “Why do you have the Blue Lion? What happened to it’s paladin?” The girl finally noticed the rest of their group. “What are you all doing here? Unless… How long has it been?”

“We don’t know what you’re talking about.” Shiro spoke up. “Why don’t you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help.” Ever the voice of reason.

The girl rose her nose in the air and jutted her chin out stubbornly. “I am Princess Allura of Planet Altea.” _Princess_? Lana might just be in love. “I have to find out where we are and how long we’ve been asleep.” The Princess moved past them and towards the podium that Pidge has been standing next to before. She placed her hands on the smooth surface and the group watched in awe as it lit up. A hologram appeared before the Princess which she began to furiously swipe at.

“Okay, so that’s how that works.” Pidge said in bewilderment.

While Allura was preoccupied with the podium, the second cryo pod opened up to show a man with organ hair and a fabulous mustache. His eyes, unlike Allura’s, had been open when the pod had closed up on him. The man must have had some serious dry eye depending on how long they had been asleep for. The man looked at Lana and let out a comically surprised gasp.

“Enemy combatants!” He yelled, springing out of the cryopod to drop kick Lana in the face, luckily she moved out of the way just in time. Matrix skills.

“Quiznak!” _Quiznak?_ “You’re lucky I have a case of the old ‘sleep chamber knees.’ Otherwise I’d grab your head like this, wrap you up like so-- one, two, three --sleepy time!” The man made wild gestures with his hands as he went through his explanation.

Lana smirked, she could play this game. “Yeah, well, before you could do that I’d--” She made a series of grunts as she wildly kicked out at the man. “Like that.”

“Oh really! How could you already have done that when I’ve already come at you with this?” The man made a jabbing motion with his hand, somehow managing to move his body with the force of his jabs. “Ha, ha, ha, hey!”

“It can’t be.” Allura said as she stared at the screen in front of her, drawing attention of the room to her.

“What is it?” Coran asked, immediately drawing his attention away from Lana and towards the alien royalty.

“We’ve been asleep for 10,000 years.” Allura exclaimed. God damn. Now Lana’s flirting from earlier was just straight up weird. “Planet Altea and all the planets in our solar system have been destroyed.” The orange haired man’s shoulders dropped and he hung his head in despair. “Coran, Father is gone. Our entire civilization…”

Allura trailed off for a second, before her eyes hardened in anger. “Zarkon.”

A stricken look crossed Shiro’s face. “Zarkon?”

“He was the King of the Galra. A vile creature and an enemy to all free people.”

“I remember now.” Shiro looked so lost and in so much pain that Lana wanted to go up to him and wrap him up in a million blankets and hide him from the world. He looked like he carried the weight of a veteran. One who could not let go of the war. “I was his prisoner.”

“He’s still alive?” Allura asked in disbelief. “Impossible!”

“I can’t explain it, but it’s true.” Shiro justified himself. “He’s searching for a super weapon called Voltron.”

“He’s searching for it because he knows that it’s the only thing that can defeat him. And that is exactly why we must find it before he does.”

 

~~~

 

“Princess, you must eat, it’s been 10,000 years.” Coran urged Allura to eat what looked like lumpy slime on a floating plate. Space goo, if you will.

“I’m not hungry.” The Princess said, continuously tapping at her screen.

“Man I haven’t eaten since breakfast and I’m starving.” Hunk said, large hands on his grumbling stomach.

“Yeah, but you’ve thrown up, like, five times.” Pidge added.

“Hmm, good point.” Hunk said, before grabbing handfuls of the goop and shoving it in his mouth. Hunk pulled a strange face at the taste before eating some more, clearly his statement from before was true.

Lana had sat down on the floor, leaning against one of the pillars while she groomed her already immaculate nails.

“I can’t believe your civilization created such advanced technology 10,000 years ago. It must have been an incredible place.” Shiro said, probably trying to strike up some friendly conversation with their alien hosts.

“Yes, it was… but now it’s gone and we are the last Alteans alive.” Coran said a sad look pulling at his old face. He looked over at Allura to see tears watering in her cosmic eyes. He pulled her to his chest and let her sob, letting out the grief from losing her father, her people and her planet.

The sound of mice squeaking made one of Allura’s pointed ears twitch. She followed the sound to the cryopod that she had fallen out of and smiled down at the four mice that were inside. “Looks like we’re not the last after all.”

The sound of an alarm broke the peace of the room. The hologram changed from a soft blue to a violent red. The image of one of the alien ships appeared on screen, looking awfully similar to the one Lana wrecked earlier. She was still very proud of that fact.

“A Galra battleship has set its tracker on us!” Coran cried.

“How did they find us?” Allura asked, the mice cradled in her thin hands.

Lana stood from her place on the floor and walked up to Keith, laying her elbow on his shoulder, accentuating the fact that she was taller. Short ass. “I’m not sure, but I bet it’s Keith’s fault.”

Keith roughly shoved her elbow off, throwing her a vicious side eye. “Say whatever you got to say to make yourself feel better. After getting us stuck on the other side of a wormhole!”

“I’ll stick you in a wormhole!”

“Stow it, cadets!” Shiro said, pulling Lana back by her bicep. Lana threw her arms up in a ‘fight me’ gesture and watched with satisfaction as Keith’s eyes sparked with anger. “This is no time to place blame. It’s time to work as a team. How long before they arrive?”

Coran had his hands close to his face and was clearly finger counting. “At their speed? Oh, well, carry the two… I’d say probably a couple of days.”

“Good, let them come.” Allura said. “By the time they get here, you five will have reformed Voltron, and together, we will destroy Zarkon’s empire!”

Hunk let out a blech in the middle of Allura’s speech, sheepishly saying, “Sorry. Food goo.”

“Princess, there are five lions, how are we going to find the rest?”

Allura didn’t say anything, but began to lead them through the castle to an area that looked like the bridge of a ship. She stepped under a light and allowed it to encase her, making her form look ethereal.

“King Alfor connected the Lions to Allura’s life force.” Um, concern! What kind of parent does that? Like, they _were_ at war, but still. What the fuck dude. “She alone is the key to the lions whereabouts.”

Allura’s opened her previously closed eyes and a full room hologram showed off thousands of stars. The group let out gasps of shock and awe looking at the stars in wonder.

“There are coordinates.” Pidge said, looking at a passing star with rabid fascination. “The Black Lion looks like it’s in the same location as the Blue Lion.”

“Look at your primitive synapses firing away in their little brain cage.” Coran said with obvious excitement.

“Very observant. That’s because the Black Lion is in the castle.” Allura smiled down at Pidge.

“To keep the Black Lion out of Zarkon’s hands, King Alfor locked it in the castle. It can only be freed if the other four lions are present.”

“As you have found, the lions choose their pilots.” So that’s why Lana was the only person who could hear the Blue Lion. “It is a mystical bond and can not be forced. The quintessence of the pilot is mirror in their lion. Together, they form something greater than science can explain.”

Allura waved her hand and the stars moved along with her, “The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron. It will take a pilot that is a born leader and in control at all times, someone whose soldiers will follow without hesitation. That is why, Shiro, you will pilot the Black Lion.”

The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality,” Allura waved her hand again. “And needs a pilot of intellect and daring. Pidge you will pilot the Green Lion.”

The Yellow Lion is caring and kind. It’s pilot is one who puts the needs of others above their own. Their heart must be mighty. As the leg of Voltron, you will lift the team up and hold them together.”

The Red Lion is tempermental and the most difficult to master. It’s faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable. It’s pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instinct than skill alone. Keith, you will fly the Red Lion.”

The Blue Lion is the heart of Voltron. It’s motherly and its first instinct is to take care of others. The pilot of the lion along with the yellow paladin will lift the moral of the team and keep others safe in the face of danger. And that is why you, Lana, can pilot the Blue Lion.” Lana was shocked by the sheer weight of responsibility that being the paladin of the Blue Lion was putting on her. She had already done that in the past with her family members, but just the fact that her personality is what made her the only eligible candidate for the Blue Lion was absolutely astonishing.

Allura turned back to Keith, “Unfortunately, I cannot locate the Red Lion’s coordinates yet. There must be something wrong with the castle. After 10,000 years it might need some work.”

“Don’t worry we’ll find it soon.” Coran said, pulling at his mustache. “They don’t call me ‘The Coranic’ for nothing. It’s because it sounds like mechanic. So… ‘Coraninc’, mechanic. It’s not-- it doesn’t sound… exactly like it. It’s similar.”

The sound of the holographic lions roaring and animating cut off Coran’s ramblings. The ran together in formation before forming a giant robot. “Once all of the lions are united, you will form Voltron, the most powerful warrior ever known, the defender of the universe!” Allura finished with flourish.

As the image of the robot faded, Hunk spoke up, “Wait. Okay, we’re going to be in there and flying lions. Got that part. How do lions turn into legs? Is this going to be a long trip? Because I have to pee. Do you people pee?”

“We don’t have much time. Pidge and I will go after the Green Lion. Lana, you take Hunk and get the yellow one. Keith, stay here. If you locate that Red Lion, go get it.” Shiro ordered, placing a hand on Keith’s shoulder.

“In the meantime, I’ll get this castle’s defences ready. They’ll be sorely needed.” Allura said.

“I’ll ready a pod and load the coordinates so that you can reach the Green Lion.” Coran offered and led them out of the room, dropping Shiro and Pidge off at the pod bay and showing the way back outside.

As they boarded the Blue Lion, Lana turned to look at Hunk. “You ready for this, bro?”

“I’m not sure. Do you think we can go home after collecting the Lions or do we have to stay here and pilot them till whatever this is is over?” Hunk asked nervously, wringing his hands out in front of him.

Lana caught his larger hands in her own smaller ones and said, “Hey, no matter what happen we got each other’s backs right? Besides I think Allura would have warned us if we were going to be staying here for all eternity. And even if we are, you’re staying for eternity with your most favorite person in the world, me. I’m not going to let anything happen to either of us or the rest of the team, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, okay.” Lana saw that she had renewed Hunk’s confidence in their strange situation and smiled up at him before letting go of his hands and holding out on fist. Hunk bumped it with his own fist and they made fake explosion noises with their mouths as they drew their hands back.

“Come on Hunkalicious, let’s go get your lion.” They climbed the rest of the way into Lana’s lion and the blue eyed girl took her seat. Grabbing the handle bars, she felt an all consuming warmth like a mother’s hug.

**Hey Blue.**

_Hello cub._         

Lana drew the bars back and launched her Lion off into the sky. In her peripheral she saw the small pod that housed Shiro and Pidge flying alongside them. After they exited the atmosphere of the planet, the went their separate ways.

Coran’s voice filtered in from a hidden speaker in the lion, _“We can only keep the wormholes that lead to the other lions open for two of your Earth hours, so you’ll have to be quick about your work.”_ A wormhole appeared in front of the lion and Lana slowly urged it in. “ _The good news is that according to my readings, both planets are relatively peaceful. So, if you do get stuck, they could be relaxing places to live out the rest of your lives. Enjoy the trip!”_

Lana and Hunk gave each other worried glances, before they were pulled into the wormholes and shot off to their destination.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is going to be very interactive, I want to know what you guys want in it. I'm going to be cutting out certain parts of episodes and I need to fill them in with other scenes to progress the story. I want you guys to leave ideas in the comments below or as an ask on my Tumblr and if I like the idea then I will put it in the story. 
> 
> Please tell me whose POV you would like the next chapter to be in? Shiro or Lana? 
> 
> Until next chapter!
> 
> Come ask me questions on my Tumblr: https://queen-ot-clouds.tumblr.com/


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